Georgia Ranked Second in Southeast in Unemployment Ins Benefit Timeliness

Georgia ranked second in the Southeast Region in April 2021 in paying unemployment insurance benefits to claimants timely behind Mississippi who processes only a quarter of the claims Georgia processes. Georgia ranks second in the nation among the top ten states by population for processing claims in categories less than 21 days. In both the Southeast Region and the top ten states by population, Georgia outpaced the United States total.

“We are focused on paying eligible claimants accurately and on time,” said Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler. “We have continued to rank in the top states in the nation every month for benefit timeliness furthering our commitment to provide support for Georgians bridging the gap between employment.”

Today, the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced it has processed 4,853,003 regular unemployment insurance (UI) claims since March 21, 2020, more than the last 10 years prior to the pandemic combined (4.8 million).

As of today, over 226,000 jobs are listed on EmployGeorgia for Georgians to access.  Employ Georgia uses artificial intelligence to match an individual’s skills to potential jobs. Claimants receive access to job listings, support to upload up to five searchable resumes, job search assistance, career counseling, skills testing, job fair information, job training services, and accessibility and special accommodations for people with disabilities and veterans transitioning back into the workplace.

Claimants are being encouraged to register with Employ Georgia before weekly work search is mandated in late June to avoid interruptions in their payments. Video tutorials on how to register and utilize EmployGeorgia are available at https://employgeorgia.com//.

The GDOL has paid over $22 billion in state and federal benefits in the past sixty-three weeks.  Last week, the GDOL issued $182 million in benefits, which included regular unemployment and federally funded Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) supplements, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), and State Extended Benefits.

Last week, regular UI initial claims totaled 24,622, up 69 over the week. Initial claims are defined as any notice of unemployment filed to request a determination of entitlement to or eligibility of unemployment insurance compensation OR to begin a second or subsequent period of eligibility within a benefit year. Initial claims numbers are not a direct correlation to layoffs. Additionally, the agency currently has 187,912 active PUA claims.

Resources for reemployment assistance along with Information on filing an unemployment claim and details on how employers can file partial claims can be found on the agency’s webpage at dol.georgia.gov.

For more information on jobs and current labor force data, visit the Georgia Labor Force Market Explorer at www.explorer.gdol.ga.gov to view a comprehensive report.